Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather.  Oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″.

Stormy Weather, 2021, oil on canvas, 42″ x 26″. A medium size oil painting which depicts an approaching storm that seems to blanket a suburban neighborhood. There is a lone runner, and a flock of birds. Fleeing the storm? The shadows of the wild clouds seem to reach out like fingers for the tiny runner, and the solid family homes. The clouds are billowy and round, the houses are geometric. Storms for all their fury, bring needed water. Our homes can protect us, but they can imprison us, as well. Storms are dramatic and spectacular. Houses are mundane, and domestic. Both can give life, and threaten us, at the same time.

The upper half of the painting is dominated by cool colors, blues and grays. The bottom half is primarily warmer colors – greens, violets, and golds. It is a painting of comparisons, with contrasts of shapes and colors. Though it can’t be seen in the photo, the road is paved with raised beads of paint. Every blade of grass is a stroke of color. The round billowy clouds cast their shadows onto the geometric shapes of the houses and roads. The reaching fingers of the cloud shadows impart a sense of motion and menace. One of the challenges of this painting was to determine how a color would appear in the sun, and in shadow. What colors should be mixed? This is an oil painting, and every color must first be mixed on the palette.